Alright, alright you’ve already had enough of this nonsense used in giant corporations. I get that. But it’s good to know what these nervous, insecure, pretentious people are doing in their attempts to ruin our magnificent English language. Here’s the third and final part of our list:
Reach out—a vastly overblown way of making contact: ‘Let’s reach out to Bob in accounting.’ As if Bob is not on the next floor of the building, but somewhere in outer Kazakhstan and very hard to get hold of. Perhaps inspired by Neil Diamond’s old song (‘Reaching out / Touching me / Touching you’)?
Socialize—sharing idea and getting some feedback. The boss says ‘Thanks for your idea. We’ll socialize it and get back to you.’ This is a real word with a real meaning—but not the meaning these monkeys give it!
Soup to nuts—from beginning to end. This comes from the fact that there was once a time when a formal dinner began with soup and ended with nuts and port. But apparently this is used in corporate circles to suggest completeness—or pretend to a non-existent completeness.
Space—this is used as an ‘add-on’ word when talking about almost anything: the ‘equity space’; the ‘beauty-supply space’; the ‘intellectual-property space’; the ‘media space’ and so on. Based on the mistaken theory that the more words you use the cleverer you sound.
Stakeholders—I have discussed this before when talking about political jargon (because those turkeys use it too). It just means anyone involved. Borrowed from the world of investment (and distorted to pretend that you are consulting everyone who cares).
Take a 10,000-foot view—in other words, take a broader view; look at the bigger picture. A common idea expressed in an almost childish image.
Thought leadership—this means ‘research’ or ‘analysis.’ But the highly paid consultants can’t use such normal language. They have to inflate their final report with rubbish like this to justify their enormous fee.
Unpack that—this is also consultant speak, and it just means ‘looking at the details.’ It was originally coined in British analytical philosophy in the 1950s, so I suppose they think they’re sounding like philosophers when they use this expression!
Utilize—this just means ‘use’: three letters, one syllable, but the corporate types wouldn’t deserve their pin-striped suits if they didn’t puff it up to something bigger. I like the comment from one of the smarter corporate crew: ‘I teach new writers to avoid “utilize” except in a MacGyver-like case, when something is used for a purpose it wasn’t originally intended for: “I utilized a bubble-gum wrapper and a paper clip to restart the computer.” Everything else is “use.”’
That’s enough! Quite enough! Tomorrow back to normal English.
Tonight I'll join Peta Credlin on Skhy News for 'Words Matter.'
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